Exercises Lecture 4 - Answers

The flight envelope

Dr. ir. Mark Voskuijl

Daan Westerveld
Delft University of Technology

donovanbeeson - CC - BY – NC - SA
 AE1110x - Introduction to Aeronautical Engineering

Exercise 1
Bottom The aircraft has more thrust on the lower picture. This is because the lower temperatures
(snow instead of a tropical island) means that we can put in more energy into the air since we are
limited by the combustion chamber melting temperature.

Exercise 2
Force You see that with increasing altitude the line shifts to the right. This corresponds to the
behaviour of the drag curve, as that shifts to the right with increasing altitude. This means force
should be on the y-axis.
For it to be a power diagram, the power required curve would shift to the right and upwards, since
the power required is directly related to the airspeed.

Exercise 3

Exercise 4
P ρn
=
P0 ρ0

We can model the change in engine power by a relation between the actual air density ρ and the
air density at sea-level ρ0 . The factor n that relates the power and the density is usually given by
the engine manufacturer.

Exercise 5
C) The minimum airspeed can be limited by stall, or the maximum thrust. With increasing altitude
the drag curve shifts towards the right, meaning that a higher speed is needed in order to support
the aircraft weight (since the air density becomes smaller). This means that the stall speed becomes
higher.
At higher altitude the engine will also deliver less thrust. It can happen that the engine becomes
the limiting factor, instead of the wing lifting capability.

Exercise 6
Aerodynamics The drag curve shifts to the right with increasing altitude, increasing the maximum
airspeed. This can only happen when the propulsion system works very good at higher altitudes,

Answers to Exercises Lecture 4 - The flight envelope 1

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such that it does not decrease in thrust that much. Since the main change in this case is the drag
curve, the aerodynamics are dominant.

Exercise 7
A) A piston engine has a rapid decrease in power with altitude. A supercharged engine has a
constant power output up till a certain altitude. From there it behaves the same as a piston
engine. The turboprop engine has a smaller decrease in power with altitude compared to a piston
engine. Therefore we have:
A: Piston engine, B: Turboprop, C: Supercharged engine

Exercise 8
Theoretical ceiling The theoretical ceiling is the point where all aircraft performance limits coalesce
into one single point.

Exercise 9
1) In order to find the density at 20 km altitude, we first need to find out how many layers of the
atmosphere we need to traverse. Since 20 km is just within the first isothermal layer, we need to
traverse two layers. Since the density is calculated from the temperature we first need to find this
temperature:

T11000 = T0 + a (h11000 − h0 )
T11000 = 288.15 − 0.0065 (11000 − 0) = 216.65 K
T20000 = T11000 = 216.65 K

In order to find the density, we first need to compute its value at 11 km altitude:

T11000 −([g0 /(aR)]+1)

 
ρ11000 = ρ0 ·
T0
216.65 −([9.81/(−0.0065 · 287.0)]+1)
 
ρ11000 = 1.225 · = 0.3636 kg/m3
288.15

In order to find the density at 20 km, we use the expression for the isothermal part:

ρ20000 = ρ11000 · e −(g0 /(RT11000 ))(h20000 −h11000 )

ρ20000 = 0.3636 · e −(9.81/(287.0 · 216.65))(20000−11000) = 0.088 kg/m3

2) In order to determine the flight speed we need to use the definition of the Mach number:
M = Va . If we want to calculate V then we need to know the speed of sound at 20 km. Since we
already calculated the temperature at this altitude (T20000 = 216.65 K), we can readily calculate
the speed of sound as:

p √
a= γRT = 1.4 · 287.0 · 216.65 = 295.04 m/s

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The flight speed can then be calculated as:

V = M · a = 0.56 · 295.04 = 165.22 m/s

3) Now that we know the flight speed, and the air density we can calculate CL . Since the aircraft
is cruising, we can state L = W . Then we use the equation for lift, rewritten for CL :

W 107.91 · 103
CL = 1 2
= 1 2
= 0.9667
2 ρV S 2 0.088 · 165.22 · 92.9

Exercise 10
C) The correct answer is: the design diving speed increases with increasing altitude. This is due
to a lower density at these increasing altitudes, making the forces less.
The pressure differential on the fuselage is not a performance limit, but an operational limit (from
a flight mechanics perspective that is). Buffet limits can be constructed using test flights , making
that answer incorrect.

Exercise 11
First we need to convert the airspeed to true airspeed in m/s. The conversion factor from knots
to m/s is: 1 kts = 0.5144 m/s. This leads to:

r r
ρ0 1.225
VD,T AS = VD,KEAS · 0.5144 · = 500 · 0.5144 · = 298.58 m/s
ρ 0.9091

With the airspeed known, we fill in the equation for ∆n, using a gust speed of U = 25 ft/s (= 7.62
m/s):

dCL ρ S ρ 122.6
∆n = UV = 5.6549 · · · 7.62 · 298.58 = 1.24 [−]
dα 2 W 2 58500 · 9.81

Exercise 12
We first need to calculate the pressure at the given altitude. Therefore, the first thing we need to
do is convert the altitude to meters: 41,000 ft = 12.5 km. This means that we need to calculate
the pressure in the isothermal region.
We start with the first layer, and we need to first find the temperature:

T11000 = T0 + a (h11000 − h0 ) = 288.15 + −0.0065 (11000) = 216.65 K

The pressure then follows from:

− g0 − 9.81
·
 
T11000 aR 216.65 −0.0065 287.0
(p11000 = p0 = 101325 = 22614.2 Pa
T0 288.15

Now we just need to go a little higher in the isothermal layer:

Answers to Exercises Lecture 4 - The flight envelope 3

 AE1110x - Introduction to Aeronautical Engineering

 
g
− RT 0 (hcr −h11000 ) 9.81
pcr = p11000 · e 11000 = 22614.2 · e −( 287.0 · 216.65 )(12500−11000) = 17848.5 Pa

Now we can find the internal pressure by multiplying the result found by 3:

pin = 3pcr = 53545.57 Pa = 53.55 kPa

Exercise 13
B) When flying near the speed of sound, the local velocity over the wing can surpass the speed of
sound. This creates shockwaves, which in turn can cause buffeting (pressure induced vibrations).
This buffeting can lead to severe structural damage.
Moreover, the aerodynamic control surfaces become less effective.

Exercise 14

Exercise 15
B, C) The measuring equipment of the airspeed indicator measures the static pressure and the
total pressure. From these two the dynamic pressure can be determined and in turn the airspeed.
However, these two quantaties are not measured directly.
For the Mach number we need information about the temperature which is not measured by this
device.

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Exercise 16
We are given the stall speed at 2000 meters altitude, meaning that we know the true stall speed.
This needs to be converted to equivalent airspeed, which is what the airspeed indicator shows:

r r
ρ2000 1.0065
VEAS = VT AS = 78.86 · = 71.48 km/h = 19.85 m/s
ρ0 1.225

This is the airspeed that is indicated on the airspeed indicator, however, we still need to convert it
to knots (that is what the indicator actually indicates):

VEAS,kts = 19.85/0.5144 = 38.6 kts

Exercise 17
C, D, F) Only the altimeter, airspeed indicator and vertical airspeed indicator work by means of
pressure. The other three works by means of a gyroscope.

Answers to Exercises Lecture 4 - The flight envelope 5